Disasters have Direction by Dr John Plodinec

Disasters have Direction

On Community Resilience by Dr John Plodinec

Our friends at CARRI – The Community and Regional Resilience Institute -have posed an interesting concept to think about: Disasters Have Direction – What Does That Mean for Community Resilience?

This guest article is by Dr. John Plodinec. John is the Associate Director for the Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In this role, he is responsible for identifying and evaluating technologies useful for enhancing community resilience. He also is playing a leading role in development of CARRI’s Community Resilience System. He has been heavily involved with CARRI’s engagement with the Charleston, SC, region. Read more about Dr. Plodinec here

For a few years, FEMA and DHS have championed the idea of an “All Hazards – Maximum of Maxima” approach to planning. The basic premise is that if a community plans for the worst of the worst, then it will be prepared for whatever may actually happen. This is a deceptively simple tautology that I think deserves a little more analysis than it usually receives, especially in terms of community resilience.

Let’s start by looking at an idealized community.

A community can be thought of as an ecosystem. There is a “human layer,” made up of individuals and families. There is an institutional layer, consisting of private businesses and other economic institutions, and all of the other “human-serving” organizations in the community. Then there is the physical, environmental, layer – containing the built and natural environment. All of these are held together by the social capital within the community (some may argue whether the physical layer is bound to the community by its social capital, but that’s a subject for another post!).

Of course, this is an ideal community; real communities may have a strong economy but be weak in the human element. Some have a decaying infrastructure but a flourishing natural environment. Thus, we can depict a real community as follows. This real community would be relatively weak in terms of its community institutions, have a somewhat stressed natural environment, but have a robust built environment.

Now let’s assume the community is hit by a hurricane. The initial impact on the community is going to be on the physical layer; buildings are going to be blown down, debris will be strewn about, flooding may occur. The other parts of the community will be impacted because of these physical blows. In our notional real community depicted above, there would be relatively little damage done to the built environment, but the natural environment would experience much greater damage (at least in relative terms) because it is weaker.

Firestorm has worked with hundreds of businesses, organizations and schools to keep tens of thousands of employees, customers and students safer. Firestorm provided crisis management and crisis communications services to Virginia Tech after the shootings, and more recently to Littleton, CO, Roswell, NM and Jefferson County School District in Colorado (location of Columbine) among others.

HEADQUARTERS

In a Crisis now? Call us: 770-643-1114

“What should we do now?” “What should we say?”

How you answer the question “What should we do now?” can have far reaching implications for your company or organization. Preparedness and Resiliency are key brand attributes for every company. Crises come as surprises. Control of events and message are lost. Impacts accelerate. Public scrutiny intensifies.

Are you ready? How do you know? Are you sure?

Most executives are trained to make decisions based upon information, data, and policy.

In a crisis,

Information is generally wrong

Data is not available

Policies do not exist

Command & Control is lost

Brand & reputation are under attack

Leadership is involved and engaged personally

Impacts are disproportional

Events are escalating

Speed is quality or even survival

You are the center of media focus

The above dynamics work aggressively against traditional empirical management decision processes. Decisions must be made quickly with limited and often incorrect information.

A crisis is not business as usual. A crisis is business as unusual.

Crises have a short duration, but have consequences that can determine the viability of a business or organization for years to come. If you are explaining, you are losing.

Crises have impacts – for good and bad. Every crisis starts with a combination of opportunity and danger. Where the risk/crisis conundrum balances depends upon your initial critical decisions, your crisis communications, your monitoring of events, and your adjustments made to strategy and actions as events develop. Your company’s reputation, brand, legacy, and profitability hang in the balance in a crisis. Crises are personal. Every crisis is a human crisis. It is your company. It is your people. It is your brand. It is your reputation. It is your career. Doing the wrong thing or doing nothing can create a point of no return.

We Help Clients Take Control of Crisis

In crisis, we assist senior management in developing or implementing a Crisis Management Plan. We provide advice and insight to help managers make crucial decisions, and communication experts to assist with social media communications and public relations. Our Senior Team is ready to help your senior team.

Don’t Let Your First Response Become Your Second Crisis

As the leading crisis management company, our founders, executives, principals, and Executive Council are available to assist as needed. We put together the right team for you.

Call Us Today for a free assessment and discover how we can help in calm and in crisis. 770-643-1114